Rose Ruiz (right) and Frances Williams demonstrate outside the Planned Parenthood central office on Babcock Road. The two were there along with other members of the Stone Oak area's Holy Trinity Catholic Church.

Early Friday, a woman who said she was seeking scheduled abortion services drove up to the Whole Woman's Health of San Antonio, only to find the main clinic shuttered.

“Are they closed?” she asked a female companion in the passenger seat, a worried look on her face.

She became one of an untold number of women in Texas who were stuck in limbo Friday regarding their ability to receive an abortion or related care as at least 13 clinics in the state stopped providing abortions.

On Thursday night, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed a ruling made Monday by a federal judge that would have blocked a new Texas law that abortion rights advocates said threatens to shut down one-third of the state's 30-plus abortion clinics.

Women, especially those in rural areas, could have to travel hundreds of miles and stay at least two days to obtain abortions, women's health advocates said.

Two clinics in the Rio Grande Valley, where poverty rates are among the highest in the nation, had to stop performing abortions Friday because of the new law, officials said. The nearest clinics for women in McAllen, Harlingen, Brownsville and other cities in the region to get a legal abortion are far away, a three- to five-hour drive.

At Whole Woman's Health of San Antonio, eight women learned their abortion appointments Friday had been canceled.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of the company that operates Whole Women's clinics in five cities across the state, said abortions at the San Antonio location will be “curtailed” because only one doctor has admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles — one of several new rules passed by the Texas Legislature in July.

That doctor lives out-of-state and flies in a couple of times a month.

“It's a real spotty arrangement,” she said. “It's not going to be able to meet the need. But it'll help us in an emergency basis.”

All told, her staff canceled 45 appointments Friday at three clinics in Fort Worth, McAllen and San Antonio because of a lack of doctors with admitting privileges.

The women “were devastated,” she said. “They're sobbing.”

Miller said her group is researching whether they can raise money to rent a bus to transport women from the Rio Grande Valley or Fort Worth area to clinics in Austin or Beaumont, both of which have doctors with admitting rights. The group is trying to raise money for gas cards or bus tickets, she said.

Her clinics weren't the only ones affected by the reversal. Planned Parenthood clinics in Austin, Lubbock, Waco and Fort Worth have ceased offering abortions in the wake of the reversal.

But at least two local abortion providers in San Antonio said they are able to continue to offer clients the same services as before the ruling.

“Last night's reversal doesn't change anything,” he said. “We will be able to provide the same (abortion) services next week as we did earlier this week.”

Planned Parenthood physicians who perform abortions do have admitting privileges at local hospitals, he said, but he declined to provide the number of doctors.

But Hons added that, with some clinics now unable to provide abortions because of the new restrictions, surviving providers will be hard pressed to meet the needs of women.

“There are over 75,000 abortions performed in Texas each year,” he said. “Are we ready to be one in a handful to meet the increased need? No. You can't take the 30 to 40 providers that were practicing and then deliver those services with five or six providers. That just can't happen.”

Hons said obtaining hospital admitting privileges is not some simple affair — different hospitals have a range of protocols and requirements; some simply decline to provide privileges to abortion providers. Some clinics might be only a few miles outside of the 30-mile required radius.

“If you're in Midland and there's one hospital and they don't admit abortion providers, what do you do?” he asked.

A staff person at the office of Dr. Alan Braid, a San Antonio abortion provider, said the reversal on the restrictions won't affect his practice because Braid and his colleague both have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

Dr. Lester Minto, owner of Reproductive Services of Harlingen, attended to nearly a dozen patients Friday, giving them sonograms and counseling, as required by the state before abortions. He also informed them that without court approval he wouldn't be able to perform their abortions Saturday.

Minto does not have admitting privileges at a local hospital and as a result will likely close his clinic. He also lacks the finances to stay afloat during an appeal, making a decision to close final.

With no remaining abortion providers on the stretch of border around Harlingen, Minto advised his patients to look to clinics in Houston or San Antonio, but he recognized that for many the long journey north is cost-prohibitive.

“I asked each and every one what they'd do,” he said, “and they told me they'd seek some other remedy, which means they'll use pills in Mexico.”

Black-market pharmacies at U.S. flea markets or vendors in Mexican border towns sell an ulcer drug called misprostol that can end unwanted pregnancies. If taken in the right dosage, the drug is safe and effective. But the consequences of taking it improperly can be dire, said Minto, who has treated hundreds of women who did so out of desperation.

Outside the Reproductive Services of Harlingen facility, a small group of protesters, carrying signs that read “Life is precious,” were planning a closing rally for Saturday.

The appeals court panel's ruling is not final, and a different panel of judges will hear the case in January.

In its reversal, the appellate judges found that the rule is likely to be found constitutional because it serves a legitimate state interest in regulating doctors and does not impose an “undue burden” on the right to abortion.

Amy Voorhees, president of San Antonio Coalition for Life, said her group was “extremely pleased” with the appeals court decision.

“This law isn't about making abortion more difficult to achieve, it's about making women safer,” she said.